Sentence Structure 101: How to Say What You Mean

In the course of my editing work I see a lot of mistakes in sentence structure: non-uniform syntax, lack of parallel structure, and misuse of punctuation. In light of this, I thought we’d go over some complex sentence constructions and discuss their do’s and don’ts.

I’ll be using a few formal grammatical terms, but not many.

Pro tip: Don’t obsess about names of terms; just learn the rules and you’ll be good to go.

Keep verbs consistent

When it comes to sentences with more than one verb, you need to keep them consistent.

I enjoyed an opera, went to a restaurant, and ate a hamburger at my favorite diner.

Here I made sure that I kept all the verbs past tense, but that was no reason not to throw in two (direct-object) noun and two prepositional phrases. Notice that the third part (or “clause”) of the sentence has both a noun and a prepositional phrase.

Tomorrow I will need to get up, get gas, and get to work.

Tomorrow I will be getting up at 7:00, stopping for gas on the way to work, and walking through the door of my office at 8:00.

The first sentence is meant to be a clever use of language by keeping the verbs exactly the same. The second is a basic list sentence that uses different verbs, but all of them are gerunds. Both sentence use verbs consistently.

It’s a preposition doing a job that is typically associated with adverbs. Rational people can disagree about this. It’s a gray area of grammar.

Get punctuation right

Here the sentences get more complicated, and you’ll have to get the punctuation right, too.

Basic list

I saw many people at the party: Bob, who is married to Mary; Fred, who is married to Melinda; and George, who is married to Marilyn.

In this sentence we have just one verb, but each noun comes with an explanatory clause. I have separated the noun clauses from each other with semicolons, and have used commas within the noun clauses themselves. (Notice my inconsistent use of italics: one is a verb and one is a preposition. This is generally a no-no.)

Some people would use a comma in place of the semicolons in this sentence, as it would still be pretty easy to understand; we’d still know who was married to whom. This will not be the case in more complex sentences, which will beg both commas and semicolons in the right places in order for us to understand them.

Multiple verbs and descriptors

I gave a belated wedding gift to Bob and Mary, the couple who lives down the street; babysat for Fred and Melinda, who have a boy and a girl; and invited George and Marilyn over (finally), despite the fact that they’ve been living next door to me for over a year.

This one’s not too bad, either. You just need to make sure

all verbs are in the same tense

clauses (i.e., each “item” or “entry” on the list) are separated from each other by semicolons

“mini-clauses” (clause within a clause) use commas

Multiple descriptors for each “item” on the list

These are fun, but you have to be careful that each descriptor corresponds with the correct noun. You do this with commas and semicolons – or with no punctuation at all.

I saw many people at the party, among them Bob, who is married to Mary and has three children; Fred,a man I went to college with, the son of Mr. Green, who is married to Margie; and George,the guy with the long, curly red hair, the son of Mr. Black whose German Shepherd once tried to bite me.

We still have one lone verb here, but a complex cast of characters:

Bob

married to Mary

has three children

Fred

went to college with me

son of Mr. Green

married to Margie

The reason Fred and not Mr. Green is married to Margie is because I have separated between each descriptor (college, father, wife) with a comma. In other words, each “clause” within the Fred clause is of equal weight and therefore must have parallel structure and punctuation.

George

has long, curly red hair (I’m jealous)

son of Mr. Black

Mr. Black

has a German Shepherd that once tried to bite me

The reason the German Shepherd belongs to Mr. Black and not to George is because there is no comma between Mr. Black and the dog. Without that one little comma, I’ve made it clear who owns whom.

George is separated from the other two men with a semicolon; George’s descriptors (hair and father) are separated from each other by commas, and I must therefore separate Mr. Black from his dog with no punctuation at all.

Unsightly mistakes

Here are 3 sentences lacking in parallel structure. See if you can figure out what’s wrong with them – and how to fix them.

Sentence #1

I traveled over hill, dale, and over the mountain.

Here the problem is unbalanced use of the preposition over as well as uneven use of the article the. The verb traveled applies to all the nouns, which begs some form of parallelism. Here you have a few options:

Use the same preposition, but use it with all the nouns.

Use different prepositions, but all nouns must have one.

Use different verbs and/or different prepositions for each noun.

Use either all the same article or none at all.

Here are some possible solutions, all of which solve the parallelism problem:

I traveled over the hill, the dale, and the mountain. Same verb and same preposition used once for all nouns; uniform use of the.

I traveledover hill, dale, and mountain. Same verb and same preposition used once for all nouns; uniform absence of the.

I traveledoverhill, overdale, and overmountain. Same verb used once for all of them, same preposition used for each of them; uniform absence of the.

I traveledoverthe hill, through the dale, and across the mountain. Same verb for all nouns; different preposition following each verb; uniform use of the.

I traveledoverthe hill, ran through the dale, and hiked across the mountain. Different verb for each noun – but they’re all in the past tense; different preposition following each verb; uniform use of the.

Sentence #2

I gave a gift to to Fred, Nathan, and babysat Melinda’s llama.

As you are giving a gift only to Fred and Nathan, you need to separate that part of the sentence from the part that has to do with babysitting. Here’s the solution:

I gave a gift to Fred andNathan, and babysat Melinda’s llama.

Easy-peasy; just connect the nouns that have to do with giving, separate them from the next verb with a comma, and you’re good to go. (If you had more than two people to give a gift to, you can use semicolons: “I gave a gift to Fred, Nathan, and David; and I babysat Melinda’s llama.”)

Sentence #3

Alongside his discussion of the relationship between relativity and deconstructionism, Professor Jones addresses several related issues: philosophy in general, the respective beliefs of the existentialists and the ethicists, the relationship between actions and their consequences, the power of prayer, and various bits of practical advice.

This is one long mother of a sentence, but except for the last phrase it’s perfect. Clauses are separated by commas because there are no clauses-within-clauses. Had there been, we’d have to use both commas and semicolons.

Notice that the professor is addressing issues. All the items in the list are issues that can be addressed except for the last one, because 1) you can’t “address” practical advice and 2) “practical advice” is not an issue.

The best way to emend this sentence is to finish the “list” after “the power of prayer,” because the verb “addresses” corresponds with everything up to and including that clause. Then we’ll need a new verb:

Alongside his discussion of the relationship between relativity anddeconstructionism, Professor Jones addresses several related issues: 1) philosophy in general, 2) the respective beliefs of the existentialists and the ethicists, 3) the relationship between actions and their consequences, and 4) the power of prayer. He also gives various bits of practical advice.

***

That wasn’t too bad, was it? Just remember these 4 rules:

figure out which verbs are doing what to which nouns

get your tenses straight and parallel

make your articles (the, a, etc.) consistent and uniform

use clear punctuation to separate between disparate parts of the sentence.

Reader Interactions

Comments

My husband obsesses over clichés and the use of “like” inappropriately used by personalities and anchors on TV. As a former English teacher, a retired librarian, and always a reader and a writer, I disagree with his counting of the “likes,” “you knows,” and “I means.” His comments are so distracting. Yes, those people are not using proper English, but my opinion is that these fillers are a type of dialect and the directors, speakers and listeners are numb to their usage. What is your opinion of this epidemic of fillers? Uh, maybe I forgot the worst one.

Hi, Beth, and thanks for the comment. I loved the last sentence especially!
I am quite the purist, so I don’t love “fillers.” I don’t encourage them in writing unless the writer is trying show how a specific character speaks. However, in lectures, on TV, and the like, I’m a bit more tolerant but still prefer people don’t use them.
All the best,
Deena

Thanks for your breakdown of the topic. Parallel structure is one of my favorite skills when teaching sentence structure to my students. We do lots of practice, and then go on to recognize it in speeches of some of the greatest orators. At that point the girls are ready to have fun creating some on their own. This will be a Great addition to my lesson!

Super helpful! Thank you, Deena. I get stuck sometimes with trying to apply parallelism using the word “to” – do I need another “to” before the second phrase, or do I stick with the initial “to” and assume it is understood that it applies to both?

Hi, Aliza.
In answer to your question, it depends on the complexity of the sentence. Try reading it aloud, and if you think your readers will need that extra “to” or a few extra “to”s, then by all means use them. The important thing is that your readers should understand what you are trying to say. If you do decide to use “to” throughout your list, then make sure each and every item gets a “to”; the big problem is when you mix and match.
All the best,
Deena

Nice use of colors. That made following the concepts much easier than it would have been. Clever, also, giving us a chance to work out the examples in our heads before explaining what the colors mean.
Honestly, I’d been planning to write that before I got to this part — I wouldn’t write just to nit-pick a free grammar lesson. But since I’m writing anyhow — in Basic List there’s a sentence that must refer to something you’d planned to put in but then removed. The sentence “(Notice my inconsistent use of italics: one is a verb and one is a preposition. This is generally a no-no.)” doesn’t make sense here because there were no italics, and I didn’t even see a sentence this might have related to.
Thanks for keeping these columns going. I enjoy them every time!

Hi, Esther, and thanks for the compliments! I’m really glad you enjoyed the post and got value from it.

I’ll go back into the post and check the issue you brought up; I might have changed something at the last minute and then forgot to adjust the parenthetical phrase. I appreciate the heads up.
All the best,
Deena

Hi, I’m Deena Nataf

I’m a book and journal editor with thirty years of experience in the field. If you write to publish, I want to help you get that first draft written, that manuscript finished, and that book out the door. If you write for yourself, I’ll give you the tools you need to write clearly, write regularly, and write in your own voice. But no matter why you write, I’m passionate about helping you make your mark on the world.